


cannot erase (will not forget)

by quilfish_swan



Category: Naruto
Genre: Based on a Tumblr Post, Bonding, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Kinda
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-21
Updated: 2020-08-21
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:07:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26021641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quilfish_swan/pseuds/quilfish_swan
Summary: “Itachi-san. Your eyes.”Itachi looks up from his tea.“Yes?”“Your Sharingan,” Kisame clarifies, making a swirling motion with his finger. He clears his throat. “It’s still… on.”“Oh,” Itachi says. “Yes, I know.”
Relationships: Hoshigaki Kisame & Uchiha Itachi
Comments: 12
Kudos: 93





	cannot erase (will not forget)

**Author's Note:**

> This is based on [this](https://quilfish-swan.tumblr.com/post/626746982447415296/bookeratlas-something-you-should-all-think) headcanon by @bookeratlas on tumblr :)
> 
> Also, even though I tried not to be, I think I was influenced by [this lovely fic](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11262771), one of my favorites which you should all read. It ended up having a similar enough vibe to me that I wanted to link it, even though it wasn't what inspired me to write this.
> 
> Enjoy!

“Itachi-san. Your eyes.”

Itachi looks up from his tea.

“Yes?”

“Your Sharingan,” Kisame clarifies, making a swirling motion with his finger. He clears his throat. “It’s still… on.”

“Oh,” Itachi says. “Yes, I know.”

On their days off, Kisame and Itachi alternate choosing the activity. Without fail, Itachi always elects to visit new teashops and cafes nearest to wherever they happen to be camped. Kisame thought it was some kind of joke at first, when the two were still getting to know each other, but he quickly realized that the infamous Clan-Killer prodigy is nothing like the rumors say, at least outside of combat. (The rumors of his skill in battle are _all_ true.) Kisame has found his partner to be strangely polite and soft-spoken; eventually, he’d stopped trying to make sense of it and had simply accepted it.

Kisame has grown to love these “teashop tours,” as he has nicknamed them, but one thing still bothers him: at some point, Itachi started activating his Sharingan during their outings. He is careful to do so only after they’ve been helped and are sitting a safe distance away from other people, and frankly, it baffles Kisame. (Not to mention, it’s a bit unsettling.) 

He knows better than to press Itachi—a bit too much prodding into the boy’s personal life early in their partnership taught him that—but he’s also never been the best at quelling his curiosity.

“We’re safe here,” Kisame says, hoping to ease any worry his partner may have about being attacked. They’ve both agreed to do what they can to blend in; they always dress in casual wear when they go into town, so as not to stand out, leaving their slashed hitai-ate and cloaks behind. Sometimes Itachi even styles his hair differently to further decrease his chances of being recognized. “You don’t need to be so on-edge.”

Itachi’s expression stays neutral. He takes a sip of tea.

“You can never be too careful.”

Kisame can’t argue with that. He lets it go. 

A few weeks later, at a new cafe, Itachi does the same thing.

Kisame had been willing to accept the odd behavior as paranoia, but considering how bright red eyes (eyes that are supposed to be all but _extinct_ ) may attract more trouble than they protect against while in public mingling with civilians, he brings it up again.

“Don’t you think you might be drawing attention to yourself?”

Itachi hums in question.

“Your Sharingan,” Kisame says flatly. Truthfully, he thinks Itachi is being careless by refusing to turn it off (even if his bangs mostly obscure his eyes, without his hitai-ate to push the hair back), and his tone does nothing to hide the fact. 

Itachi hesitates before saying, “If it makes you feel safer, I will deactivate it.”

Kisame huffs. “I thought you were doing it to feel safer.”

Itachi says nothing. 

“Fine,” Kisame says. He isn’t in the mood to argue, so he lets the subject drop. 

After a moment, Itachi’s red eyes swirl to black, and they sip their tea in silence.

Kisame can’t bite his tongue a few nights later, when he comes back from a grocery trip in a nearby town. Itachi is by the fire. Kisame sits next to him and hands him a bag of dango that he knows the boy loves so much. Itachi takes the treat with a smile, thanks him, and then promptly activates his Sharingan. Kisame twitches.

“Worried the sweets are going to attack you?” he half-teases-half-snaps.

No response. 

He frowns and folds his arms. He doesn't get it. Why turn it on just to eat the dango? Hadn’t he just been sitting here with normal eyes until Kisame arrived?

“Seriously, relax," he says. "Don’t waste your chakra. We’re totally safe here.”

“Kisame.”

Kisame stops. He’s sure, by Itachi’s tone, that his partner hadn’t meant to silence him, but rather finally offer some explanation for his strange behavior. Had he been mistaken? He waits. After the pause stretches on for a minute or so, Kisame begrudgingly decides to let it go, _whatever_ it is. He rises to go get ready for bed. 

It’s then that Itachi speaks.

“Did you know that the Sharingan gives the user perfect photographic memory?” he asks evenly, staring into the fire with still-red eyes. His voice doesn’t sound any different than usual, but for how little the boy opens up, he may as well be baring his soul. 

Kisame sits down again.

“I did not,” he says.

Itachi is quiet for several more moments, while Kisame ponders why his partner would tell him such a bit of trivia. It doesn’t take long for him to put the pieces together, and the answer causes him to still.

“Itachi-san,” he says softly. “Are you saying that you… want to remember this?”

He gets silence in response, and Kisame knows he’s right. He’s overcome with a feeling—compassion, maybe? Certainly not something he’s felt in a very long time. He suddenly feels guilty for letting Itachi’s habit irritate him so. 

Now that he thinks about it, Itachi uses his Sharingan a lot when the two of them are together doing things that wouldn’t seem to require such a precaution: sitting around the campfire, talking as they travel, swimming in the lake on the days off that Kisame gets to choose their activity. (He supposes their cafe visits must have stood out to him as strange because of how closely they sit facing one another.)

He’s… touched.

Itachi clears his throat, and says simply, “It’s a way to counteract the things that I’d rather forget.”

“Itachi-san…”

They don’t say much more after that. Itachi finishes his dango and tosses the stick into the flames, thanking him once more. Kisame fondly watches the way the orange light dances across his young partner’s features. How old is he now? Sixteen? Seventeen? Kisame doesn’t know. Maybe he’ll ask tomorrow. 

With one of Uchiha Itachi’s many mysteries solved, it’s easy to fall asleep that night.

The next time they sit under the shade of a table umbrella sipping tea and Itachi’s eyes spin to red, Kisame smiles.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading :)


End file.
